Semifinal pairings set for BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup

Serena Williams will face Kim Clijsters and Svetlana Kuznetsova will play Venus Williams in the semifinals of the BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup, exhibition event to take place March 1 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

The semifinal pairs were determined according to the 2009 year-end rankings. The highest-ranked player was paired with the lowest ranked, and the remaining two are to face each other.

The exhibition features no ad scoring format, and each participant will compete in a one-set semifinal with the winners advancing to a best of three-set final.

17 thoughts on “Semifinal pairings set for BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup”

I got my tickets for this nite at Madison square garden, I can't wait for it. gosh I can't believe that front row was going from 1000.00 dollars!.
Anyhow you could find a seat as cheap as 25 bucks
for this nite. I would like to say no matter who
wins that nite I will route for both Venus and
Serena. And hope that their is a Williams final
like last year. Only that Venus wins this year!.
I think what jacob is asking is how Venus was
chosen Marija?. From what I know they choose
her because of her performance at Doha and mexico
wins and because of Wimbledon final. They could
have gone with Dinara, or Azarenka because both
did well last year in the standings and finals
as well. Watch next years MSG will have Henin
for sure, and if Serena doesn't win Wimbledon.
Venus sure should do well this year there so
she might be choosen again. And then Clijster
maybe again.

I think I stated that in my sentence Jacob, and
Marija. She was chosen due to her performance.
She won 2 matches, and her consistency in the
Wimbledon Finals 3x in row. And I think it had
to do with Billie Jean King as the person who
picked her due in part too. Like I said earlier
they could have gone with Azarenka who won
titles too that year but they didn't. Or
Even maybe Dinara, or Jelena Jankovic. It was at
the sole discretion of her.

Okay so the initial participants are chosen by the grand slam winners of the year, Serena, Kim, and Svetlana. Then Because they need a 4th, Venus would be the most obvious choice option, because she was the last person to win a grand slam before those 3 players and was a grand slam and YEC finalist. Because Serena drops out, the next previous grandslam champion before Venus was Ana. There makes perfect sense. If another drops out then the next alternate should be Maria Sharapova.

It's all about marketability and ticket sales and box office draw. Don't forget sports is a business. The Williams sisters are a ticket draw. I would have replaced Serena with Maria Sharapova or Jelena. Maybe they were not available so they went to Ana?